The Hero and the Maiden
by Vivien Lestrange
Summary: Frank Longbottom is a real hero. Evelyn Adams is only a young girl who doesn't want to be alone at night. That doesn't mean she's going to leave a frightened child out in the rain alone however.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter. No money's being made with this story.**  
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**The Hero and the Maiden**

Evelyn was scared. She tried to focus on the TV-show she was watching but she hardly saw anything. Wendy, the dog, kept walking around in circles. Again and again, she looked at Evelyn sadly or started to bark. When she finally did settle down, she seemed to be shaking.

Evelyn simply couldn't understand this. She had been out with the dog only an hour ago and everything had been alright. It just wasn't possible that Wendy needed to go out again.

The dog's behavior was making her so nervous. The only time when she usually did this was Guy Fawkes Night with all the fireworks going off. Today, there were no fireworks, only rain. It was the middle of April.

Evelyn sighed. Why did this to happen the night where her parents were out? Normally, Evelyn was enjoying the time without her parents but not today. Her friend had suddenly become ill and she was all alone. Evelyn would never have admitted it to anyone but she hated being alone in the dark.

The music show stopped and an action movie started. Evelyn smiled when she saw the movie's hero. He looked almost like her neighbor, Frank Longbottom.

The similarities didn't stop there though. Frank was a real hero himself. He and his wife were both working for some secret special police force. Evelyn was sure that they were doing things very much like what she was seeing in the movie.

That wasn't all though. Evelyn had seen with her own eyes how brave Frank was. When a forgotten kitchen stove had caused a fire in a house down the street, Frank had gone in there without an oxygen mask or anything and taken the two children out to safety.

At first, Evelyn had giggled when her parents told her that Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom were moving into the house next to them. By now, she had long since stopped thinking that the name was funny.

The Longbottoms were extremely nice people and they had had plenty of fun during their garden parties.

Frank was also extremely-good looking with his warm chocolate-brown eyes. Evelyn blushed a little while thinking of him. Sometimes she dreamed that he was saving her from something too.

Evelyn knew that Frank was married and had a child of course, but dreaming wasn't forbidden, was it?

Wendy started to bark again. Evelyn sighed. She didn't want to go out again. She really didn't.

She was turning the sound on the TV off and tried to listen. People near the door, a car in front of the house or anything like that might cause the dog's behavior. She could hear nothing.

Evelyn took a deep breath. She wasn't all alone. Frank and Alice were there, she knew it. When she had come home with the dog, she had seen light in their windows. Evelyn would have felt more comfortable if she had heard her neighbors talking or something but that wasn't possible. Even little Neville's crying was never audible; the Longbottoms' house must be very soundproof. They were quite secretive anyway. Visitors were never invited into their house, only into the garden. When Evelyn had been babysitting Neville, they had always done it at her parents' house.

Evelyn assumed that this had to do with their work. The Longbottoms had actually warned them and other neighbors that they should never come looking if there was some sign of trouble at their house. They were supposed to hide and not call the police either.

"Those people we're after aren't above hurting innocents," she remembered Frank say. Sometimes, it had always seemed as if they feared someone being after them.

These thoughts weren't making Evelyn feel any more comfortable.  
There were ads on the TY now and Evelyn decided to get up and fetch a bit of chocolate and a glass of water. On the way, she was closing the shutters. Safe for the one at the backdoor, she needed to let the dog out once before she went to bed.

She settled back down on the couch, watching the hero who resembled Frank so much freeing a pretty young woman from a bad guy's hands.

Suddenly, the door bell was ringing. Evelyn flinched, her entire body tensed. The dog started t to bark madly. It was past 10 pm, no one had a reason to ring the door bell at this time of the day.

Horrible visions were drifting through Evelyn's mind. Was it someone who knew she was alone at home and wanted to rape her? A robber who thought he could overpower her easily? Their semi-detached house wasn't special but some thieves didn't care about that. She wasn't going to open the door of course.

Still, it might be some neighbor who was in trouble. Maybe someone was ill and they needed to use the telephone. Could she simply ignore it?

After a while Evelyn decided that she had to find out. Otherwise she'd go mad with fright and worry.

There was a window in her father's study. She could see the door from there.

Without turning on the light, she walked towards the window and peered outside. It was completely dark. For some reason, the streetlights were off. So there was really something wrong, Evelyn thought. Not only her imagination. The moon and stars weren't visible because of the cloudy sky.

Evelyn couldn't see anything, but she was hearing something. At first, she didn't know what it was, but then she realized that someone was crying.

A child.

Evelyn took a deep breath. There was a child in trouble. She had to go out and check. She simply had to.

Shakily, she forced herself to walk towards the door, the dog Wendy came running towards her. Evelyn took the leash and put it on the dog's collar. She didn't want her to frighten or harm the child. If there was danger, the dog might be able to protect her.

Evelyn's hands were shaking so badly, that she hardly managed to open the door. She still wasn't sure if she was doing the right thing. Maybe some rough hand would be grabbing her soon.

Finally, the door was open.

When she stepped outside, Evelyn barely believed her eyes. Under the porch sat Neville Longbottom, his round little face white as snow, his eyes wide with unspoken terror.

"Neville! What are you doing here?" Evelyn said shocked. The dog was wagging her tail now.

The child didn't answer.

"Come in," Evelyn said and tried to help him to his feet but his legs didn't want to carry him anymore. He had to crawl inside on all fours even though Evelyn knew he had been walking for months.

Evelyn looked around carefully. Had Neville rung the doorbell himself? She could hardly believe it given the state he was in. When she looked at the stone floor underneath the porch, she saw a small slip of paper. Something seemed to be written on it.

"Take care of the boy. His parent's won't be able to anymore."

Evelyn felt as if someone had been dropping a heavy weight into her stomach. What did that mean? What was going on here? Before she could finish her thought, the piece of paper had turned into fine dust and was blown away.

Evelyn was stricken with panic. Could this have been poisonous? She knew about the dangerous things that were being used by secret agents sometimes. She went back inside, closing the door behind her. After having checked that it was really shut, she hurried towards the bathroom and washed her hands three times.

Neville was still sitting in the hall where she had left him. He didn't seem to notice her.

"Oh Neville, what's wrong with you?" she asked.

"Have hurt Mum and Dad," she suddenly heard him say. "Have hurt Mum and Dad." He replied these words again and again.

Evelyn sat down on couch taking Neville onto her lap. The little boy was looking so terrified; Evelyn had never seen anything like it. No child should have to look like that. She had no idea what she should do next. Call the emergency doctor maybe? This would probably be the most reasonable thing. Still, Neville's parents had told them that they shouldn't interfere if something was happening at their house.

It was too late for that now. Neville was here. He didn't seem to be in an immediately dangerous condition though. Maybe she should wait for her parents; they might know what to do.

The chocolate was still lying on the plate. Evelyn picked a piece of it up. Neville normally loved chocolate.

"Do you want that?" he asked.

Neville's little hand was grabbing the chocolate and he started to eat. At least one thing that was still like the Neville she knew.

When he had finished eating the chocolate, he started repeating the same words all over again however. "Have hurt Mum and Dad, have hurt Mum and Dad."

Evelyn sighed. She couldn't believe that Neville had really harmed his parents. Maybe he was just missing some words.

Still, he didn't say that his parents were dead, he said they were injured. Maybe they needed help. If that was the case, Evelyn simply couldn't turn a blind eye to the situation. Frank and Alice could die because of that. She had to check on them.

Her eyes were carefully searching the room for something that might be dangerous to a small child, she couldn't see anything. The dog Wendy would accompany her. Evelyn didn't believe that Wendy would hurt the child but you could never be sure with dogs. Especially with the strange behavior she had shown this evening.

"Listen Neville. I'm going to look for your Mum and Dad. You stay here, I'll be back really soon."

Evelyn wasn't sure if the boy had understood but she hoped though. She took her dog by the leash and opened the backdoor. It was still raining. Evelyn was shaking all over. Frank had told her not to do exactly what she was going to do know. She simply couldn't leave him like that though.

He would never have done that if it had been the other way round.

Evelyn walked through the small garden, as slowly and carefully as she could. There was light coming from the Longbottoms' house.

Just when Evelyn had reached the small wall between the two gardens there was a sudden noise. The Longbottoms' backdoor sprang open and four figures came walking out. Evelyn held her breath.

They were wearing long black hooded cloaks and masks. Evelyn stared at them. They resembled vampires or something from horror movies but not anything secret agent related.

A female voice shouted something, something very strange. It sounded like "Morsmordre" which wasn't even a word as far as Evelyn knew.

Eerie green light was spreading over the garden; Evelyn was watching it in disbelief. Something like that wasn't possible, was it?

She looked up at the sky and screamed in panic. The green light had formed a skull with a snake creeping out of its mouth. This couldn't be true, it simply couldn't be true. It had to be some kind of nightmare. This kind of thing did only happen in nightmares. Just like evil people wearing black cloaks.

Surely Evelyn would soon wake up on her couch, realizing that she had fallen asleep through the ad break.

Suddenly one of the four figures came walking directly towards her. "Oh look, a Muggle's been watching."

It was the same woman who had shouted the odd word only moments before. She reached into her cloak, Evelyn expected her to pull out a gun. She made herself as small as possible, hoping that the woman wouldn't be able to aim properly in the darkness.

There wasn't a gun in her hand though. Only a thin wooden stick. Another strange word came out of her mouth. "Crucio!"

The next moment, Evelyn saw a flash of red light. "How dare you!" the woman shrieked.

"Not here," a man said. His voice was deep and slightly hoarse. "We don't want to get caught."

"He's right," another man added, his voice more smooth than that of the first speaker. "Leave it alone. It's not worth it."

Evelyn knew that this was absurd given her situation, but she thought it was extremely rude of him to refer to her as "it."

The man who had spoken first walked off, following the fourth one who had almost left the Longbottoms' garden behind him.

The woman shook her head but followed them. As soon as they had left the garden, all four of them seemed to be gone, simply vanished into the shadows.

Evelyn was shaking so badly, that she could hardly get up. Her first instinct was to run back to her family's house but she had to check on the Longbottoms. The strange people were gone now after all.

If this was only a nightmare, it wouldn't matter anyway.

She climbed over the small wall and walked towards the Longbottoms' backdoor. The room behind the door seemed to be the living-room like the one at Evelyn's house but it was a complete mess. Things had been thrown down, torn open and broken apart; it looked as if there had been an explosion or a fight.

There didn't seem to be anyone there except for the Longbottoms. They were a terrible sight. Both of them were lying on the floor, unmoving. There was blood and a disgusting smell of vomit and sweat came through the open door.

No, she wasn't going to go in there. Evelyn didn't know much about first aid anyway. She had to call the ambulance.

Shivering as if she had been out in the cold for ages, Evelyn returned with the dog, closing the shutter immediately. Neville was busy eating the rest of the chocolate.

Evelyn took a deep breath. At least the boy seemed to be relatively well. Had he witnessed what had happened to his parents? What a horrible thought.

Evelyn had been so shocked by the short glimpse into the room she had gained.

"I'm going to get help," she told Neville. The ambulance and the police as well. They had to look into this. The numbers for the emergency call were above the telephone. Her fingers still shaking, Evelyn called them.

Ambulance and police were arriving quickly. The paramedics decided to take Neville to the nearest hospital as well.

The police were questioning Evelyn but there wasn't much she could tell them. She didn't mention the green light which had gone already and she didn't tell them about the strange clothing and behavior of those people either. Evelyn didn't want them to believe she was mad.

She did tell the officers that she had seen four people run away from the Longbottoms' house though, one woman and three men.

When Evelyn's parents returned, they were shocked to find the police at their house. As soon as they were told what had happened, they were relieved and told their daughter that she had done the right thing.

"Let's just hope the Longbottoms will be better soon," Evelyn's father said.

The Longbottoms didn't return during the week. The neighbors were discussing what had happened but no one really knew. Evelyn tried to concentrate on her school work. During the days it worked well, at night, the green light kept returning.

The following Friday, Evelyn was sitting in her Latin class at school. The teacher was testing if they had learned the newest vocabulary well. He turned to one of Evelyn's classmates. "To torture?"

The boy needed to think for a while. "Cruciare," he finally said.

"Yes. Give me the principal parts."

The boy was looking at him blankly. "I don't know. Sorry."

The teacher was shaking his head. "Well, Evelyn, what about you?"

Evelyn went through the forms in her head, when the chill of this night returned to her. She opened her mouth but no word wanted to come out. The pen she had held in her hand was dropping to the ground.

"Seriously," said the teacher. "A-conjugation. It's not that hard. Give me laudare."

"Laudare, laudo, laudavi, laudatum," Evelyn said quickly.

"Good. Cruciare is just the same."

Evelyn sighed deeply. She had no excuse now. Very quickly, she spoke the forms. "Cruciare, crucio, cruciavi, cruciatum."

Afterwards, she felt the strong desire to wash out her mouth.

"Good," her teacher said before turning to the next pupil.

Evelyn had completely forgotten about the verb cruciare. This terrorist or whatever she was shouted the Latin word for "I torture" at Evelyn? This was making no sense, no sense at all. Maybe it had really been nothing more than a nightmare, one in which Evelyn's Latin homework had turned up among other things.

Another week later, Evelyn was asked to come to the police station and testify again. The police had arrested a group of suspects and Evelyn had to look at a photograph so she could tell them if they had the right people.

She was looking at the four in front of her. The woman was quite young and pretty with long dark hair. Her eyes were exactly the eyes she had seen during that night however. There was a thickset man with reddish hair; Evelyn could imagine very well, that he had been the one who had warned the woman of getting caught. The other was thinner with flax-colored hair; he must be the one who called her "it."

"I'm not entirely sure, they've been wearing masks after all," Evelyn said. "But I do believe the woman is the one I saw. I can recognize her eyes."

The police officer put four pieces of paper in front of her. "These are samples of their hand-writing. Do you recognize the writing on the note you've been given?"

Evelyn was looking at the notes. One hand-writing was very ornamental, Evelyn was quite sure it belonged to the pretty woman. The second one was barely legible, the third one looked differently too.

The fourth sample however, a rather boyish writing that could have almost come from someone of her; school looked exactly like that on the note.

"This one," she said.

"Are you sure?"

"Very sure," Evelyn said.

The police officer nodded. "Thank you. This has been really helpful. You've done very well."

"May I ask you something?"

"Yes."

"How are the Longbottoms doing? Did they survive?" There had been no funeral so she assumed they did but you never knew. "What about Neville."

"The boy's living with his grandmother now," the police officer told Evelyn. "She asks us to thank you too."

Evelyn swallowed. Neville was fine but his parents were not. Frank and Alice would never return to the house next to hers. Evelyn felt tears welling up in her eyes as well as a bit of guilt. Alice had always been so nice to her and she had always been jealous. How very petty.

Two months later, another family was moving into the house next to that of Evelyn's family. They had a son as well but he was already seventeen. Evelyn didn't like Kevin at all in the beginning, but as time went by, this started to change.

There were some things about his girlfriend Kevin would never understand however. Sometimes, when they were watching an action movie where the hero was being tortured, Evelyn would mutter the word "cruciare" to herself for a moment seemingly forgetting everything around her.

Whenever the movie had a happy ending, as most of them did, Evelyn would cry. For she knew that there were no happy endings for real heroes.


End file.
